“It’s not about what we do. It’s about why we do, what we do.” – Simon Sinek
Recently, I’ve become a bookworm and read some great books, out of which, I love the ones written by Simon Sinek called “Start with Why”. He is a British/American author, Ted Speaker, motivational speaker and marketing consultant. He has written four books including this one which became a bestseller and has sold millions of copies.
The whole idea of this book is “Why” we make decisions, and how those decisions help companies to reach the height of success. Simon has shared some case studies of the companies that focus on “Why” more than on “What and How ” are now owning the world.
The Golden Circle was one of the chapters of his book where he shared a case study of Apple Company and the way Apple market its products. They don’t sell their products with ‘what they do’, but ‘why they do what they do’. Confused? Let me explain how:
The reason of Apple being so successful is the way Apple communicate to customers. Most companies talk about their products, features, specification, and start comparing with other products in the market. Apple sells Why their products is worth buying. They believe in challenging status quo. They also talk about the whole user experience and comfort making products that work better and simple to use for their consumers, that’s why you feel different when it comes to Apple or feel exceptional when you are using one of Apple’s products. For them, winning customer’s trust and loyalty are one their priorities. The rest will come later. Watch this video to understand the idea of a Golden Circle
WHY – ELEARNING?
If you go a few decades back, after computers were invented, eLearning was one of the dream for many organizations. Thinking of a virtual environment was a reverie for everyone. Even Steve Job’s belief was to bring simulated environment for higher education when he was building his another company Next.
eLearning is now a whole another domain and has taken most of the market. There are different types of tools like authoring tools and Learning Management System, Learning Record System help to design, manage, and monetize eLearning. We (eLearning developers, educational technologist, and instructional designers) are assigned to make things easier for the company and help them to increase learner’s performance. So far, to implement best elearning solution in the company, we become analytical and evaluate the best product but sometimes we forget to include the overall impact that product will bring to the learner’s performance. Yes, you are right! I am talking about learners.
SOLUTION:
Since I was super amazed by Simon’s Golden Circle discovery, I keep thinking about it. All of it makes me wonder, this is exactly what we are supposed to do in eLearning, but unfortunately, not all of us are doing that.
We do exactly what Simon mentioned. Create The Golden Circle of eLearning. Please see the revised version of this diagram below.
The outer blue circle named “What” represents the tools that we currently use to design eLearning courses. Most of us know that there are some commendable authoring tools available in the market that makes our content look attractive, interactive, and engaging.
The orange circle named “How” represents the strategy that we use to design eLearning courses. One the top rated strategies we use to create engaging courses are Gamification and Microlearning.
The green circle named “Why” represents the Goals. This part plays a vital role when it comes to design to an elearning course. Defining the purpose to believe that why we need this course is very important because if you don’t know why you do what you do, then how will you get your audience to vote for you. Because you see, People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it, and what you do simply serves as the proof of why you believe in it.
Most of us do it the other way round, starting with What, then How and lastly Why.
“What”- Select the best authoring tool that helps us to design eLearning course.
“How” – Pick the strategy that helps our eLearning course.
“Why” – Define the purpose or goal of the eLearning course.
Currently, most of us are using this pattern to design eLearning course. We start with What, How and Why. But is it giving us to great output?
According to Harvard Business Review, US organizations spend over $160 billion dollars on employee training and education, with global figures estimated as high as $356 billion.
Nearly 75% of the senior managers and leaders in the organizations polled by CEB were dissatisfied with the performance of their L&D department.
One of the major reason is that those companies are not achieving their goals. They put more attention on their What and How but on the actual problem instead. One of my mentor and eLearning Guru Cathy Moore talks about it in one her webinar “The big mistake in eLearning.” She said: Most of us are trying to solve the wrong problem. All we do is to put lipstick on the pig. The big mistake in elearning
What I am suggesting here is to reverse the order of thinking. Each step will lead another.
“Why” – Define the purpose or goal of the eLearning course.
“How” – After identifying that, pick the best strategy or approach that goes with it.
“What”- Once you know the purpose, know the best strategy then pick the right tool that not only makes your eLearning course attractive but also take less time and effort.
Let me explain this further:
SCENARIO:
Peter is hired as Instructional Designer at XYZ company. Paula (Peter’s manager) give him his task to design an eLearning to improve the sales performance on Storyline. He can also use to Camtasia if he wants to create a video. The deadline for this project is one month and his first meeting with SME and Stakeholders in few days. Since this was Peter’s first task, he has to impress his manager. He should prepare himself for the meeting.
Let’s apply what happening in today’s world:
What – Peter knows about Storyline very well. It will be easier for him to get on the tool and start working on the project.
How – Peter is confused between the strategies but based on prior experiences; he thinks it would nice to apply Gamification on his eLearning course. It’s easy and less effort for him.
“Why” – He set meeting with stakeholders and SME, and explained the reason he’s going to create elearning course. Stakeholders and SMEs were confused and stopped him. They told him that the eLearning he assigned was for Call Center Agents who have very limited time to take for training. He should design something short, concise and should be not more than 10 minutes.
Let’s rewind and apply the Golden Circle of eLearning.
Why – When he was asked to prepare himself for the meeting. He must go through all the content given beforehand and prepare a list of questions that he supposed to ask Stakeholders and SME, to know about the learners. For example:
· Why you want to design this course?
· What is the goal of this course?
· Who is the learner?
· How long those courses should be?
What – After having a very informative meeting with Stakeholders and SME, Peter has gone through the entire notes and realized that it would be great if he designs a microlearning that gives core information and help agents to take advantage of limited training time.
How – The best way to do it is to create short videos on Camtasia and create few engaging slides and wrap the course into Articulate Storyline. Upload them on LMS if hosted or on SCORM Cloud for tracking and reporting purposes.
Some of us are already doing this and need to understand why eLearning is essential for learners? Why should they pick your course? Why will this course impact in learner’s life? Does this impact learner’s performance? Learners could be employees or students. If we don’t use the Golden circle then it will not only affect our job but it will also hurt the overall organization.
Conclusion: We have jobs because organizations need help. They hire someone who can help to improve their employee’s performance and help them to achieve milestones. I think suggesting best tool or strategy could help, not until we identify “Why.” The Golden Circle of eLearning will help to keep our jobs secure and make us successful.